


Evenings

by GeneralWeylyn



Category: Show By Rock!! - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-02-07 12:04:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12840786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeneralWeylyn/pseuds/GeneralWeylyn
Summary: A series of one-shots that delve into the relationship between Rom and Yaiba





	1. Kit

Rom sighed as his back sunk comfortably into the back of the couch. Empty take-out containers had been left on the coffee table, and a black-tipped ear occasionally twitched as Rom twirled the long fur between his fingers as he caught up on the day’s news on his boyfriend’s tablet. It was somewhere around the third or fourth page of rather boring news stories that Rom found his attention beginning to stray from the reported topics of Midi City, and repeatedly landed on the rather affectionate fox that was currently curled up against his side. 

It was basically an evening ritual by now, since the two had finally gotten together. If they didn’t have band practice in the evening, Rom would wind up reclined on the couch with Yaiba either snuggled up against him, or flat-out stretched out across his lap. Some evenings ended with Rom (begrudgingly) pulling himself off of the couch and away from his boyfriend to move to his office to finish whatever work deadlines that his team at the office had been given. Tonight, luckily, wasn’t one of those times. His eyes kept drifting from the tablet screen to the ear he was playing with (he’d developed a bit of a habit of toying with the soft fur whenever they relaxed like this) to the slender hands that occasionally paused the game Yaiba was playing to take a drink from his mug of hot tea. He glanced back to the fox’s lengthy and full tail, up to his sharp facial features and determined golden eyes. 

Had Yaiba always looked so intimidatingly stunning..? Had he grown up as a beautiful child? Rom himself had been…cute, as he was often told, but he’d always been a bit rough as a kid. He’d never actually seen pictures of Yaiba as he’d grown up, and he would have been lying if he hadn’t wondered just how adorable of a fox he’d been back then. 

With the thought now cemented in his mind, he set the long-ignored tablet onto the end table and waited until the game had been paused again. “Hey, Yaiba..? What were you like as a kit?”

“…prior to adolescence?” He set his gameboy aside and replaced it with his mug, continuing only when he received a nod of confirmation from Rom. “If you mean, did I look the same in appearance…no. Hence, it’s actually quite the opposite. I was…my ears were much shorter than they probably should have been, and other children had often picked on me because my nose didn’t match the color of my muzzle… My tail was also a lot shorter. Thin. And a lot less fluffy than it was supposed to be…some thought it appropriate to say it looked… _mangy_ because it hadn’t filled out yet.” He paused to take in Rom’s clearly unhappy expression, and quickly moved to scratch behind one of his ears at an attempt to soothe him. “It wasn’t too bad; I was more solitary as a child. Hence, it didn’t particularly matter; I was kept busy with training and calligraphy until high school, anyway.”

Rom, obviously even more displeased now, plucked the mug from the fox’s hands, and pulled him fully onto his lap. “Just ‘cause you didn’t have much time for other stuff doesn’t make it acceptable! You were bullied based off of your appearance, that’s never okay. You’re _beautiful_.”

Red stained Yaiba’s cheeks and the tips of his ears, and he attempted to sink into the cover of Rom’s hoodie he’d stolen several months prior. Even after how long they’d been together, he didn’t think he’d ever get used to such compliments from his boyfriend. “Rom, it wasn’t as bad as it probably sounds. I never really got the chance to get used to interacting with others, so it never really bothered me as much. Hence, my classmates were mainly disinterested in me until I came back for third year.”

Yaiba paused, trying to read the puzzled expression on the leopard’s face. “…oh. Right…I forgot we’ve never really.. I don’t really talk about my adolescence much. It wasn’t particularly bad, just…uninteresting, hence—Most of the classmates that I attended elementary and middle school with had ended up going to the same high school as myself. The first year was like the past years; I’d kept my distance and kept to myself, while others talked and made their hardly subtle comments and observations about me. For my second year, my parents had me study abroad at a school that was highly regarded for its kendo program. It wasn’t _as_ bad there, hence, I’d actually been able to push my musical studies much further. There was an instrument shop not too far from the school…if I wasn’t involved with schoolwork or training, I was there furthering my skills. Hence—one of the employees actually helped me find Ryukenden before I left when the year had ended.” 

“That’s impressive as hell, babe… If you were good enough to get into a school like that, how were your classmates not intimidated by you? You coulda easily kicked their asses.”

“….Rom, I’m a fox. I’m not a very confrontational person, you know this.” Yaiba sighed, and stared at his boyfriend’s fingers that had ended up interlacing with his at some point. “Hence, when I’d gotten back to my previous school…everything had changed. During second year, I’d had…essentially a series of growth spurts that resulted in most of what you see now. I got a lot taller, my ears lengthened out, and my tail grew much, _much_ longer and fuller. When I came back, the way my classmates treated me was _immensely_ different. All the people who had picked on me and, hence, talked about me behind my back were suddenly always trying to talk to me, invade my privacy and personal space, it felt…cheap. The way they talked to me wasn’t at all genuine, so I didn’t pay them any mind. It…still all boiled down to them only noticing that I existed because of how I looked. It wasn’t until I moved to Midi City as soon as I graduated high school that it stopped.”

“That’s honestly pretty crappy of them.” Rom used his free hand to tilt the fox’s chin to look at him. “You’re an amazing person, Yaiba. _Beyond_ amazing, and it’s their own loss that they didn’t want to actually get to know you.” Before Yaiba could duck away in (admittedly adorable) flustered embarrassment again, he closed the short distance between them in a quick, but heavy kiss.

“R-Rom!”

“What? I wasn’t gonna let you get away this time, you always look so cute when you’re flustered like that.” He chuckled when he heard Yaiba’s small ‘yip’ in surprise at his comment, and pulled him against his chest. “See? You just proved my point again.”

He nuzzled his nose into the side of Rom’s neck, effectively hiding his face this time. “Shut _uuup_ , Rom.”

Rom smirked, a bit of a smug expression on his face. “Heh. Love you too, Yaiba.”


	2. Cast

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Yaiba froze in his place on the stepstool he was perched atop, presently reaching for a box on top of one of the cabinets in the practice room. He stayed silent for a few moments while he gathered the courage to speak up. “O-oh, Crow, I was just…looking for that extra box of Ryukenden’s spare strings…”

The hedgehog raised an eyebrow as Yaiba turned to look at him with a sheepishly guilty look on his face. “Uhuh. After what happened last week? I thought we told you to take it easy and _not_ do stupid shit like this.”

“It’s just a box, hence—it’s fine.” Yaiba turned back towards the cabinet, and began reaching once more. “Besides, Aion’s busy helping Ailaine build that dresser she wanted, and Rom’s…” The fox paused long enough to pout, not that Crow could have seen it. “…on his business trip…”

“Yeah, the one he’ll be back from in _three days_. And I don’t think he’ll be too happy if he finds out that his darling fox boyfriend wasn’t taking care of himself _like he never does_.” He prodded the fox in the side lightly. “And you _know_ Rom’ll ream our asses if you make your ankle _worse_.”

Yaiba batted away the offending hand, and lightly glared at him. “I’m almost done, okay? I accidentally left my cigarettes in the break room, left of the fridge. Can you go grab them for me and I’ll meet you in the café?”

Crow squinted, contemplating the request for a few minutes. “…fine, but you better be careful. I don’t feel like getting punched more than usual in a few days.”

The fox scoffed lightly, placing a hand on his hip. “I’ll be fine. See you downstairs.”

He gave one last disbelieving glace Yaiba’s way, and left.

Making sure the guitarist wasn’t returning, he reached back up, and…damn, still out of reach. He tried standing on his tip toes, faltering slightly when he put just a little too much weight on his left side, and yet... _fuck_ , he still couldn’t get it! It was _right there_ , just barely hanging over the edge of the cabinet. Maybe he could…yeah, that should work! Yaiba made sure he was steady enough and bent his knee, springing up into a hop and reached a hand up, _juuust_ high enough, and…yes!!! He knocked the box off of the cabinet and onto the floor, hell yeah!

…he _almost_ landed gracefully, the ball of his foot hitting the top step of the stool, and the heel of his boot _completely_ missing the surface. Yaiba tumbled backwards off of the stepstool, left leg reflexively stepping backwards to save his fall. As soon as his left foot made contact with the floor, he yelped in pain, tumbling to the ground. “ _Fuck_ …” He pulled himself up into a sitting position, wincing slightly at the faint sting he now felt on his right side. …Rom was _not_ gonna be happy.

Yaiba sighed and reached over to grab the box of bass strings that had _luckily_ knocked down, before _carefully_ pulling himself to his feet. He took a tentative step on his left leg, testing to see how bad the injury had gotten. …eh, he just needed to put some ice on it, maybe a pain killer or two? Regardless, he needed to make his way down to the café pretty quickly, lest Crow get _too_ suspicious…

\-- _One week later—_

“Alright guys, here’s the plan.” Rom pointed to the flyer in his hand with a drumstick, specifically at the time slot that the band was assigned to. “I know we got started a little late ‘cause of my work, but the set list _still_ hasn’t been figured out. We only have a limited amount of time, and we _have_ to decide on what songs we wanna play.”

“Yaiba suggested ‘Haitoku no Catastrophe’ to start off with, an’ seein’ as it’s _clearly_ the best—“

“Yes, Rodent…we’ve established that thrice, now,” Aion cut in, turning to the bassist. “Do you have any ideas, then?”

The fox looked up from his seat on the floor of the edge of the stage, and pulled out a couple of sheets from their song binder. “I was actually thinking about the possibility of starting with ‘Scarlet Eyes,’ transitioning into ‘New World Order’? Hence, while I agree with Crow that ‘Haitoku no Catastrophe’ would be an excellent track to open with, it’s not our only option. That one could also work for a good encore track.”

Aion ‘hmm’d, carefully thinking it over. “That is not such a bad idea…It seems that ‘Shangri-La’ would be a good opening contestant as well.”

“Or,” Rom piped up, “we could indulge Crow, and start off with ‘NeoN,’ follow up with ‘Shangri-La,’ and finish with ‘Haitoku no Catastrophe.’ Since, y’know, we only get three songs at this festival gig.”

The hedgehog pumped his fist in excitement. “Hell yeah, Rom’s always got the right answers!” He quickly jumped onto the raised platform of the practice room, Red Tomahawk in hand. “C’mon, Aion, Yaiba, let’s **_practice!!!_** _”_

Aion sighed, mumbling _some_ thing about “his overly excitable hedgehog,” and stepped up onto the platform, Holy Ark in hand.

“Yeah, hence--I gotta grab Ryukenden first.” The bassist made as quick of work as he could standing and grabbing his bass, trying as best he could to hide the _horrifically worsened_ limp he’d been sporting for almost three weeks. With his treasured bass in hand and the uncomfortable feeling of the three’s gazes on his shaky movements, Yaiba tried to step onto the platform to join them. He failed to notice the power chord to his amp catching on his left heel, and he fell onto the floor with a pained cry.

He heard the faint sound of drumsticks clattering to the floor and the shouting of his name before quickly and carefully being scooped up by his mate, and set onto the plush bean bag chair that was, undoubtedly, Moa’s.

“ _Yaibabe, **please** …” _Rom cupped his fox’s cheek, running his thumb over the soft skin in soothing motions. “Are you alright…? Is it your ankle?” He asked, as if he didn’t already _know_ damn well what it was.

Before he could respond, Aion stepped forward and placed a hand atop Yaiba’s head. “ _Someone_ never went to get his ankle looked at after he fell off of the stage, as I am more than positive you have already figured out. He has not been keeping proper care of it, and has had _at least_ one fall since the initial injury.”

Yaiba’s ears flattened as the blond spoke, and he shrunk a little into himself in guilt. He opened his mouth to respond, but was gently silenced by Rom’s thumb pressing against his lips. “You should have said something…your ankle’s probably a lot worse off than it was to begin with.” The leopard sighed, and gave his mate a gentle peck on the forehead. “Crow, Aion, do you two mind cleaning up our stuff while I take Yaiba to the hospital?”

“’Bout time, his ankle’s probably super swollen! It’s a wonder how he even got that boot on…” Crow put a hand to his chin, before leaning down to unzip the fox’s left boot. “ _Holy_ …yeah, we’re takin’ that off.”

Rom frowned as he watched Crow pull the boot off as gently as he could, feeling Yaiba flinch more than a couple times. “ _Shit_ , Yaiba…that’s…damn….” He lifted the bassist off of the bean bag bridal-style, and, once he was sure his boyfriend was secure, made for the door. “Let’s get goin’, babe. I’ll keep you guys updated.”

\-- _Later that evening—_

Yaiba snuggled further into his pillow—a.k.a. one leopard myumon—and sighed softly, staring at his left foot that was now adorned in a yellow cast, resting atop a pillow. Going to the ER had been draining, and he’d definitely admitted that he should have gone _far_ sooner quite a few times. He was ever grateful, as he always was, of his mate who was unbelievably patient and understanding. “Rom…I’m…I’m really sorry…”

The “pillow” gently shooshed Yaiba and began petting black hair. “I told you, it’s alright. You really gotta take better care of yourself, that’s all I ask…”

“Yeah, I…thank you…I probably wouldn’t have taken myself to get it checked out until there was no way I could have walked.” He ran his fingers over the tanned skin of the arms that held him tighter than he’d _ever_ been held before, and nuzzled against his leopard’s chest. “I love you, Rom…”

“I love you too, Yaibabe...” He kissed the top of his boyfriend’s head, nuzzling his nose against a fluffy ear. “You’re the only person who can make me this happy, you know that?”

“You remind me every day, how could I ever forget?”


End file.
